The former Gregg Township secretary who pleaded guilty to stealing more than $500,000 in public funds is now facing theft charges in Union County.
Pamela D. Hackenburg, 56, is accused of stealing more than $50,000 from an American Legion post in Mifflinburg, where she volunteered as treasurer/bookkeeper, to fund her gambling addiction, NorthcentralPA.com reported on Tuesday.
She was charged on Monday, a week after she was sentenced to at least two years in prison for using Gregg Township funds for online sports betting, vacations and personal expenses during her tenure as secretary of the rural Centre County municipality from 2019 to 2024.
The new charges came after two board members reported a theft of money from of the American Legion post to Mifflinburg police, NorthcentralPA.com reported. They said when Hackenburg began serving as treasurer in September 2023 she claimed the books were disorganized and that she suspected money was missing — an allegation police say was part of her gambit to steal funds.
Hackenburg provided her own financial reports that showed the accounts were in order, according to the outlet. She also was the only person with access to a drop safe and was responsible for retrieving cash to be deposited at a bank after bartenders ended their shifts, the board members told police.
Sometime before August 2024, the board members learned Hackenburg had been writing personal checks to the Legion in amounts greater than $100 in violation of club policy. The checks were returned for insufficient funds, which Hackenburg never addressed and which incurred penalties for the post, according to the report.
Police determined that she was using the personal checks to cover money she had taken from the deposits to make them appear consistent with register printouts. She eventually just started reducing the amount of deposits, according to the report.
After confronting her about the checks, Legion members suspended her from her role in August 2024 and a month later she resigned. Board members then found the office was in disarray, discovering small amounts of undocumented cash, months of empty deposit envelopes and money from Skill machines missing.
They also allegedly learned that Hackenburg failed to pay $10,000 in federal taxes for the post and did not renew its small games of chance license.
Hackenburg, police said, concealed deposit receipts and other documentation to hide her theft as she continued to deplete the Legion’s bank account to the point it could no longer cover operating expenses. Members used personal loans to keep the club afloat.
She also allegedly set password changes for the Legion’s bank account to be sent to her phone for approval, and she remotely accessed the account after she had resigned.
An accounting service’s audit found that Hackenburg allegedly stole money on more than 40 occasions totaling $50,095, NorthcentralPA reported. Police said the audit also discovered she made automatic payments totaling $127 from the Legion account to Amazon Audible.
Hackenburg allegedly disputed the total amount, but admitted to police that she stole funds from the Legion to support her gambling addiction.
She was charged in Union County with felony counts of theft and receiving stolen property and misdemeanor counts of tampering with records, unauthorized use of an access device and misapplication of entrusted property.
Hackenburg was arraigned by District Judge Jeffrey Mensch, who set bail at $10,000. She was already in custody for her Centre County conviction.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Oct. 21.
The allegations in the Union County case are similar to those in Gregg Township, where Hackenburg maintained sole access to municipal books, bank accounts and statements. Investigators said she used township credit cards to pay for personal expenses, including sports gambling, fabricated documentation to cover the theft and, after she was relieved of her position, left behind a locked office in disarray.
